1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to product identification apparatuses, product identification methods, and programs, and, more particularly, to a product identification apparatus and a product identification method which are suitable for determining the authenticity of a product or finding a stolen product and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Product identification verification techniques for specifying a stolen product or tracking a commodity product have been proposed. In such product identification verification techniques, an IC (Integrated Circuit) chip is embedded in a product, an identification code is recorded on the surface of a product using a special fluorescent coating that reacts with light of a specific wavelength, or a light polarizing film is placed on a product.
In the case of the above-described techniques, however, a special apparatus is necessary for the processing of an inspection target product or the identification and verification of the product. This increases the cost of identification and verification. As a technique for overcoming the above-described difficulty, a technique for inexpensively achieving the identification and verification of a product using a unique pattern on the surface of the product or a random pattern placed on the surface of the product has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-10581).
In the case of this technique, it is unnecessary to perform special processing upon a product itself. The image of the surface of a product is captured so as to obtain a pattern on the surface of the product. Using the obtained pattern, the identification and verification of the product can be easily performed at relatively low cost.